It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “In Seattle, the median single-family home price of $896,500 is up about 11% from last July but down from a $919,000 peak in May. ‘Buyers feel like they can be a little more choosy at this point,’ said Ian Gordon, a broker at Coldwell Banker Bain’s Seattle-based Get Happy at Home Team.”
“Colorado Springs-area home prices took a breather in July from their record-setting pace during much of this year. At the end of July, the supply of homes listed for sale totaled 981. That’s the highest monthly inventory since 881 homes were on the market in October 2020. Rick Van Wieren, a real estate agent with Re/Max Properties in Colorado Springs, said he continues to see multiple offers for homes. There have been occasional price reductions on homes listed or sale and some properties might stay on the market a little longer before they sell.”
“‘Home sellers are increasingly having to lower their expectations,’ said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. ‘The transition to this new slightly cooler phase of the housing market will happen unevenly depending on the location and the desirability of the home. If you are currently looking to buy a home, I recommend that you do your research on how much attention the home is getting before you put in your offer. If you find a home without any other offers, you may be able to get it for below the list price and with inspection and financing contingencies intact.’”
“‘Asking prices are still high, but the share of listings with price drops is rising steadily and could soon reach pre-pandemic levels,’ said Fairweather. ‘That’s an early indication that we are past the peak for this intense seller’s market. Buyers may begin to regain some negotiating power on properties that have been on the market for more than a week.’”
“The torrid pace of activity in the Long Island housing market cooled off slightly last month, as home sales fell and inventory rose. The 1,442 pending sales in Nassau and the 1,751 pending sales in Suffolk last month reflect a 31 percent year-over-year drop from July 2020. Meanwhile, inventory continues to climb. Since the Long Island inventory bottomed out with 6,008 homes listed for sale in March 2021, there are now 26.2 percent more homes on the market.”
“George Ratiu, Realtor.com senior economist, says an aerial view shows differing sides of the current real estate equation, but one consistent with what Pasadena buyers and realtors have seen for the past six months. ‘On one hand,’ Ratiu offered, ‘mortgage rates have been dropping for a month, moving toward the lows we saw in January and February of this year. On the other hand, more homeowners are entering the market, with the number of freshly-listed homes for sale advancing in 14 of the last 17 weeks.’”
“The Sarasota Herald-Tribune met with Centennial Bank Market President Tyrone Shinn to discuss what his bank has experienced during the recent real estate boom. What challenges do rising construction costs pose in the underwriting process? During underwriting, we are thoroughly vetting how much liquidity the borrower has between themselves and capital partners and how much they are willing to invest in a project. The real estate industry is cyclical, it’s not a matter of if but when this housing bubble will burst and as a bank, we want to remain wary of the fluctuating loan-to-cost and loan-to-value for these credit requests.”
“The hottest real estate market in recent memory showed signs of cooling in July, but realtors in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows say it is still a seller’s market. Dianne Fernandes Enns of the Royal LePage Brookside Realty team, said properties are no longer selling for prices way above asking, as they were in the spring. She doesn’t believe sales will drop significantly over the long term, noted that an influx of foreign investment could again bring greater activity to the Vancouver market, with ripple effects across the Lower Mainland.”
“‘Maple Ridge is very popular,’ said Enns. ‘It’s one of the last places you can get a single family home for $1 million.’”
“This two-bed, two-bath home has been on and off the market since December last year. Believe it or not it was actually first listed for $2,475,000 when it first hit the market. Now it’s down a touch at $2,295,000 but in my humble opinion that’s still WAY too high. I’m actually a bit baffled as to why the realtor or homeowner thinks they can get $2 million for a mediocre-at-best bungalow. The house is right on the corner of Bathurst Street so it’s going to be loud AF and since when is being close to the nightmare that is the 401 a good thing?”
“And yet $2 million just for under 6,000 square-feet of land in a meh area? WHY?!? Am I missing something?? Is this sitting on oil? Or is this just Toronto real estate? Please say it ain’t so.”
“London’s property market has become a buyer’s market, driven by demand flowing out of the capital and into areas such as the commuter belt since the onset of the Covid crisis. London estate agent Benham and Reeves reveals nearly one in three properties in the capital have had their initial asking price slashed whilst on the market. Director Marc von Grundherr said: ‘While much of the UK is very much a seller’s market at present, it’s a fantastic time to be a buyer in London.’”
“House prices in Sydney’s coastal and middle-ring suburbs have defied the lockdown, rising by up to 5 per cent over July, but some areas in the city’s south-west and Parramatta have succumbed to the ballooning outbreak. Ten out of the 17 worst-performing suburbs were in Sydney’s south-west, CoreLogic’s latest data shows. ‘But there are some confounding factors to consider which suggest this might not all be due to harsh lockdowns,’ said Eliza Owen, CoreLogic Australia head of research. ‘It could be due to affordability constraints hitting these markets.’”